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Green Real Estate Law JournalDiscussing current issues in construction and real estate law as they relate to sustainability, from the perspective of owners, builders, and design professionals. Published by Stephen Del Percio, B.Eng., J.D., LEED AP.

Archive | Hudson Yards

The first in a series of reports from the Alliance for a New Penn Station begins building a strong case for a new Midtown West anchored by a twenty-first century, regional mass transit hub where Madison Square Garden stands today.

Hudson Yards, Manhattan West, and associated infrastructure and transit improvements will transform the far West Side of Manhattan for good. Two recent panels discussed and revealed some important new insights on these two enormous projects, which will have wide-ranging effects on New York City’s real estate and construction industries.

If the City Council gets its way and Madison Square Garden is forced to move to accommodate a new Penn Station, here are five of the most likely destinations for what would be a fifth iteration of the World’s Most Famous Arena.

In an effort that will completely redefine Manhattan’s far West Side, the city officially broke ground earlier this week on the massive Hudson Yards project, which will feature at least two LEED Gold office towers.

With $400 million in financing secured from Bank of America and a Middle East wealth fund, Related is ready to break ground on the first commercial office tower at its 300-acre Hudson Yards project, which will be home to Coach and seek a LEED Platinum rating from USGBC.

The handbag maker Coach has agreed to purchase a 600,000-square-foot condominium interest in the first commercial office tower that will rise at the Related Companies’ 60-block, 300-acre Hudson Yards development on Manhattan’s West Side.

Noah Kazis does a pretty tremendous job limning the gordian knot of issues surrounding New York’s zoning policies and politics, but he paints a favorable picture of the Bloomberg administration’s ultra-ambitious zoning work overall — nearly one-fifth of New York City has been re-zoned since 2002, and generally it has been re-zoned fairly thoughtfully. In the instance of Hudson Yards (pictured), for example, the city’s decision to essentially create a new neighborhood was predicated on the extension of the 7 train. Not all the development has been that wise, of course. “Even while the Bloomberg Administration has zoned for growth to be centered around transit, it has also closed off the possibility of more intensive transit-oriented development,” Kazis writes in part one. “The overall effect is positive, but it could be even better.” It’s a story gbNYC readers already know: this is a very green city, but it’s also one in which some very real green accomplishments are tempered by agencies that sometimes seem to be operating at cross purposes and the hugely powerful (and hugely regressive) influence of Real Estate Mega-Developers.

The Hudson Yards Community Advisory Committee has released a response to the West Side Rail Yards proposals in a letter to the MTA that calls for green building practices across the Hudson Yards project.